Department
The role is housed within the Research and Enterprise Office at the University of Essex. The department supports academic departments with all aspects of research, including securing, managing and reporting on funding.
The Enterprise team, within which this role sits, manages the University’s portfolio of knowledge exchange activity, including collaborative research with industry, and supports the commercialisation of Essex research.
Duties of the Role
The successful candidate will manage the University’s Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) portfolio – the largest KTP portfolio held by any UK university. The role manages the nationally award-winning KTP team (Best Knowledge Base Support Team 2025, Innovate UK).
You will proactively seek out new partners, as well as nurturing the existing portfolio in order to deliver maximum value from within the University’s innovation ecosystem. You will need to be abreast of current and future funding opportunities and align their activities with University and broader government strategies.
In addition, you will work collaboratively with other project and portfolio managers across the Enterprise team to ensure that insights and opportunities are fully exploited. This role lines manages two Senior Knowledge Exchange Officers, and has overall responsibility for the KTP team which has six members in total.
Qualifications and Skills required
The successful candidate will be educated to degree level or have relevant equivalent experience. You will be an excellent project/programme manager with deep experience of leading the scoping and delivery of complex, multi-stakeholder collaborations.
The ideal candidate will have track record of success with winning grant funding in an academic/research context. You will need to excel at relationship management and will be able to quickly assimilate and translate complex, technical concepts for non-specialist audiences.
The ideal candidate will have previous experience of working in an external-facing role within Higher Education or similar/related environments. You will be able to quickly understand best practice in the field of knowledge exchange, and get to grips with the systems and processes the University uses to facilitate this activity.
At the University of Essex, internationalism and diversity is central to who we are and what we do. We are committed to being a cosmopolitan, internationally oriented university that is welcoming to staff and students from all countries, faiths and backgrounds, where you can find the world in one place.
To support this commitment we have our, a staff-led network that promotes and celebrates the rich cultural diversity among Essex staff, and our Colchester campus based Faith Centre, which hosts regular services, meetings and events organised by our chaplains and faith representatives. For more information see: